Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Use a breast of lamb weighing about three pounds, two table-spoonfuls of butter, two of flour, one tablespoonful of chopped onion, one table-spoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two cloves, a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a table-spoonful of lemon juice, and a generous pint of water. Bone the meat, and lay it flat in a stew-pan, putting the bones on top of the meat. Put the butter and onions in a frying-pan, and cook slowly for ten minutes ; then add the flour, and stir until smooth and frothy. Gradually add the water and afterward the seasoning. After simmering for ten minutes, pour over the meat in the stew-pan. Cover, and simmer for an hour and a half; then take up the meat and put it on a flat dish. Place on top of it another flat dish or a tin sheet on which rests a brick or some other weight. Set away in a cool place. In the morning remove the weight, and after trimming the edges of the meat, broil over a hot fire for ten minutes. Season with butter, salt, and pepper. A nice sauce to go with the lamb may be easily made. As soon as the meat is put away to get pressed, strain the liquor in which it was simmered. When it gets cold, skim off the fat. In the morning put the sauce on the stove in a saucepan, and when it gets hot, add a teaspoonful of walnut or tomato ketchup. Broiled breast of lamb is a good dish for luncheon or supper as well as for breakfast. A breast of mutton may be cooked in the same way. * Fricassee of Lamb, with Baked Dumplings. Cut up enough cold lamb to make a quart of dice each about an inch square, and after seasoning the meat with salt and pepper, put it into a rather shallow dish, and pour over it a sauce made as follows : — Put a table-spoonful of butter into a frying-pan, and when it becomes hot add a table-spoonful of flour. Cook until brown, and then add a scant pint of water. When the sauce boils up, season it with salt and pepper, and pour over the meat. Set the dish containing the meat and sauce into the oven, and make some dumplings in the following manner : — Mix together in a sieve, and then rub through it, a pint of unsifted flour, half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, and one teaspoonful and a half of bakingpowder. Rub into the mixture half a table-spoonful of butter, and then wet it with a small cupful of milk. Roll out the dough, and cut it into very small biscuit. Remove the meat from the oven, and place the biscuit or dumplings upon it ; then return to the oven, and bake for twelve or fifteen minutes. Serve the fricassee immediately in the dish in which it was cooked. * Lamb Warmed in Curry Sauce. After freeing a quantity of cold lamb of skin, fat, and bone, cut it into thin slices, and season with salt and pepper; then make a sauce according to the following rule, in which the quantities stated are sufficient for a quart of meat : — Put into a frying-pan three table-spoonfuls of butter and half a small onion, cut fine, and cook slowly for eight minutes ; then add two table-spoonfuls of flour and one teaspoonful of curry-powder, and stir until perfectly smooth ; gradually add a pint of stock, and stir the sauce until it boils ; season with salt and pepper, and cook for three minutes.